Surviving Holiday Pressure

The “holiday season’ really kicks off with Halloween. Its quickly followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years eve. All push the extra treats. So, the questions really is… do we indulge for the season?

Now, I am not one to shy away from something sugar filled! I have a significant sweet tooth. How do I survive the holiday season still wearing the same pants you may ask? Let’s break down the reason we’re so drawn to sweets during the holidays, after we understand it, we can see how to avoid the extra pounds this winter.

Holidays and food in general surround the big events in our lives. We have birthday cake, wedding cake, retirement parties, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pie, Christmas cookies, and all the other holidays thrown in there. Typically treats were created because it was a time to splurge on using baking materials not on a necessity. It was a time to show we were celebrating by being frivolous with our rations. As food has gotten more readily available and the treats and candy at every check-out counter we are not indulging daily instead on only on the special days.

Our core memories are filled with special desserts, cupcakes in class, holiday cooking with Grandma. These lead us to believe they are NEEDED to create a fun filled holidays season or lasting memories. As the treats became more readily available, we draw farther away from traditions NOT surrounded by food. This connection is STRONG, and it takes a lot to break free from the pressures of society.

Now, if we just had dessert at the holidays – and homemade ones – it wouldn’t be such a big deal, our bodies wouldn’t even notice. Especially if we still lived the active lifestyle of our families just 50 years ago. But times have changed. We are a sedentary of society that eats processed desserts nightly. So, they will take a toll.

Let’s get to the good news! We can still have treats and wear our favorite holiday outfits. Here are the top 5 tips!

1. Indulge in the treats on day of celebration only. This will limit majority of the treats right here. Even if you save treats given to you throughout the holidays and bring them out on the day of the event only. We can recover from one cheat day better than an entire month.
2. Consume only homemade (preferably organic) treats. There are many chemicals and man-made preservatives and pesticides all throughout our food system. Each wreaking havoc on our digestive tract impairing its ability to process the food we eat.
3. Pair the treats with fiber. Fiber slows the absorption of sugar into our blood stream. Why is this important? The flood of insulin released (to remove glucose – sugar – from our blood) triggers our body to store fat, we don’t want that sp we need to slow the sugar surging through our bloodstream.
4. When consuming sugary treats avoid alcohol. Besides being highly caloric, we need our digestion to be working at high gear to handle the extra treats. When we consume alcohol we are crushing our microbiome. Think of hand sanitizer for your digestive tract. You just killed all the good bacteria with you alcoholic drink, many of which contain a lot of sugar.
5. Boost your microbiome. This can look like eating fermented foods, taking a probiotic, drinking kombucha and eating a lot of fiber! Keeping the gut healthy keep digestion going, keeps yeast away and keeps you from adding on the pounds during the holidays.

BONUS: Keep moving! This should go without saying but we need to keep our workouts going during the holidays. With the stress of the added foods, the financial and familial side, we need to keep the cortisol from soaring. Resistance training can help you with this too! So NEVER skip a workout during the holidays!

Now that we are fully prepared, bring on the holiday season. Stick to the rules above and you’ll be in good hand this winter. Have a great treat season!

October 2025 ©BeSTRONGERFitness